Blake Webb with Steve Arnold at Flemington

Big day out for Blake!!!

Last Saturday I went to Flemington anticipating Husson Eagle running a big race.  Unfortunately he put in the worst run of his career finishing at the tail of the field.  These things happen in racing and it won’t be the last time we have a disappointing day at the track. 

The highlight of the day was the excitement Blake Webb displayed having his first day at a metropolitan race meeting.  Blake is the grandson of well-liked Prime owner Peter Webb from Tumut. At times we get that involved with our horses that we forget that we are in racing to have some fun and hopefully earn enough stakes money to pay our horses upkeep.

Peter was having a few dollars on horses Blake selected and coming into the last at Flemington his selections were going as well as Husson Eagle did earlier in the day.  Bingo, he got selected the last winner and all hell broke loose as he did a war dance Adam Goodes would have been proud of.

It has been a tough few months for Blake who with his mother badly injured in a car accident near Wagga Wagga a few months back. Luckily all that was injured on Saturday was Peter’s wallet!!!  Good on you Blake you certainly brightened up what was a pretty ordinary day at Flemington, weather wise anyway.  I’m certain Peter can’t wait to get you back to Flemington.

THE WEEK AHEAD

From our perspective it has been a quiet week but things will start to hot up going forward.  Hazy Blur resumes today at Wyong.  On Saturday Faith’n’Courage is running at Doomben but has a difficult gate to contend with.  On Tuesday More Than A Rose is nominated in the Ballina Bracelet although she will also be nominated at Doomben.

We will have more nominated later in the week but I will update these next week.

SYNDICATIONS

I have been overwhelmed with the response to our yearlings this year and should be in a position next week to know exactly where we stand with them.  I’m pleased to say almost all the shares are gone with the odd 5% share available.  If you are interested in getting into a small share give me a call and I’ll let you know what is available. 

I must thank our trainers for the terrific job they have done for us over the past 12 months.  You don’t maintain a 20% strike rate for no reason and I’m certain heading into the new season we will continue to have consistent results.

I am starting to look at weanlings in the Hunter Valley and I am very interested to see how the first season sires progeny are shaping up.  I’m very confident I am close to the mark with Smart Missile.  He is a very good hope of being champion first season sire. 

YEARLING OF THE WEEK

Smart Missile filly out of Pride Of Pine 2013

10% shares @ $12,500 (5% @ $6,250)

Kris Lees to train

The filly

This filly is a strong well balanced athlete that will continue to go forward as she commences breaking in at about the end of June.  She has a great hindquarter and is without doubt the best credentialed filly I have ever offered for syndication. 

She is a ¾ sister to the outstanding 3year old filly Lone Rock and winner of the Group 1 SAJC Goodwood Handicap.

The filly is also a ¾ sister to Pride Rock the VRC Riverside Handicap and Lucia Bella which was trained by Kris Lees and displayed great ability before going amiss.

The filly has many upsides including:

• As the ¾ sister to a Group 1 winner she has residual value and if she were to gain black type would be an extremely valuable breeding proposition after she completed her racing career.
• She comes from a great female line that includes some of the best mares in the Australian Stud book, Procrastinate, Personify, Galapagos Girl.
• There are quite of number of well-bred fillies high up on the page that should continue to see the pedigree page continue to improve.

Smart Missile

I was confident after starting to inspect the weanlings and then yearlings of Smart Missile that he would make it as a sire and he is my pick to be Leading First Season Sire in 2015/16 season.

He has almost every important characteristic I look for in a potential sire.  In his case these are:

• He has a great pedigree coming from a strong female line that consistently produces black type horses that compete at the highest level. 
• His dam is a ½ brother to the outstanding young sire Northern Meteor who gave us a glimpse of his great ability as a sire in the three crops that have raced.
• He had explosive speed and was an exceptional two years old.  This is very important in Australia.
• He is by Fastnet Rock and represents the most successful sire line ever seen in Australia with his grandsire being the great Danehill.
• Importantly for a son of Fastnet Rock he isn’t too big.  In fact he isn’t unlike Australia’s current leading first season sire Hinchinbrook, also by Fastnet Rock in this regard.
• He was selected to stand at Arrowfield Stud by John Messara.  Studs always don’t get it right when standing sires but Arrowfield under Messara’s stewardship haven’t made too many mistakes when standing a new horse.
• Smart Missile is Australian bred and competed at the highest level in this country in our harsh conditions.  I can never understate how important this is.  If you want to confirm just how important this characteristic is have a look at the leading sire’s tables.

Pride Of Pine

There isn’t much more to write about Pride Of Pine.  She was a fast race mare that has done a great job at stud throwing three winners from four to race including the Group 1 winner LONE ROCK.

Pride of Pine is by Lion Cavern who is quite a good broodmare sire internationally but not well represented in Australia.  His two Australian Stakes horses are by Danehill line sires which may well be the key to his success.  He also has a very good horse by Exceed and Excel named Flashman’s Papers which won 17 races two at stakes level.

Another view of Raido’s great win!!!